Have you observed that your main website is appearing in Google's search results, but your blog or online shop (located on a subdomain) is not visible? This is indeed a matter of concern! It indicates that Googlebot may be experiencing difficulty in crawling and indexing all sections of your website. This can significantly impact your overall visibility in search engine results. Let's delve into the reasons behind this issue and, more crucially, what steps you can take to resolve it.
Understanding the Crawling Issue: Main Domain vs. Subdomains
Consider your website as a building. Your main domain (e.g., 'example.com') serves as the primary entrance. Subdomains (such as 'blog.example.com' or 'shop.example.com') are akin to separate rooms or extensions within that building. Occasionally, the search engine "spider" (Googlebot) readily locates the main entrance but fails to recognise the presence of other rooms that require exploration.
This situation often arises due to the configuration of your website and the effectiveness with which you have guided Googlebot to access all its components.
Common Factors: What's Hindering the Crawl?
Here are some of the most prevalent factors responsible for crawling problems:
- Internal Linking (or the Absence Thereof!): Envisage attempting to locate all the rooms within a building without any corridors or doorways! Googlebot faces a similar predicament if your website lacks clear links connecting your main site and your subdomains. Ensure that your navigation menu, footer section, and even relevant blog articles incorporate links to all your essential subdomains.
- The robots.txt File: This crucial text file ('robots.txt'), residing at the root of your domain, provides instructions to search engines regarding which sections they can and cannot crawl. A single, incorrectly placed line within this file can inadvertently block an entire subdomain (or even your entire website!). Please double-check its contents! A frequent oversight is the presence of 'Disallow: /' at the root domain, which obstructs everything. Kindly note that each subdomain can also possess its own 'robots.txt' file.
- Sitemaps: Your Website's Navigational Guide: Sitemaps function as detailed maps for search engines. They enumerate all the URLs that you wish to have indexed. You can submit these to Google Search Console. It is highly recommended to have a sitemap that encompasses all your URLs – for both the main domain and subdomains. You have the option of utilising a single comprehensive sitemap or separate ones for each segment of your site.
- Server-Side Issues: Is your website experiencing slow loading times or displaying errors? If your server is encountering difficulties, Googlebot might cease its attempts to crawl your site. Ensure that your hosting service is dependable and that your website loads promptly. Keep an eye out for issues such as 404 (Not Found) errors or 500 (Internal Server Error) errors.
- Canonical Tag Considerations: If you have duplicate or very similar content across your main domain and subdomains, ensure that you are correctly implementing canonical tags. This informs Google which version is the primary one, preventing confusion and optimising crawl budget.
Addressing the Issue: Troubleshooting Steps
Now that you have identified some potential problems, let's explore how to rectify them:
- robots.txt Verification: As a first step, thoroughly examine your 'robots.txt' files (both the one located at your main domain and any present on your subdomains). Have you inadvertently blocked any crucial sections?
- Sitemap Submission: Generate those sitemaps (or revise your existing ones) to include all your URLs, and proceed to submit them to Google Search Console.
- Utilising Google Search Console's URL Inspection Tool: This tool is invaluable! Employ it to inspect specific URLs (pertaining to both the main domain and subdomains) and observe precisely how Googlebot perceives them. It will notify you of any crawling errors.
- Strengthen Internal Linking: Thoroughly review your website and ensure the presence of numerous clear, easily accessible links connecting your main domain and all your subdomains. Consider navigation menus, footer sections, and relevant links within the content.
- Server Performance Monitoring: Maintain a regular check on your server's performance. A sluggish or error-prone server is highly detrimental to crawler activity.
- Requesting Indexing (If Necessary): Within the URL Inspection Tool, you have the option to request that Google index a particular URL. This can, at times, expedite the process. (Please note that the former "Fetch as Google" feature has been discontinued, but this tool serves the same purpose.)
Conclusion
Ensuring that your entire website – encompassing both the main domain and subdomains – is crawled and indexed is of paramount importance for effective SEO. The key is to facilitate Googlebot's ability to locate and comprehend all your content. By addressing these common issues and implementing the steps outlined above, you will be well on your way to achieving a comprehensively crawled and well-performing website! Remember to consistently monitor your website's status in Google Search Console – it is your primary resource for overseeing your site's health in Google's assessment.